An example could be having a cord attached to a friend who is going through a dark time in their lives. You care about them, but in their desperation, they may be draining you of your energy instead of going through the difficult work of using their own inner resources. Cutting the cord with this person doesn’t mean that you don’t care or love about them any longer or that you’re abandoning them; it simply means you’re letting go of the dysfunctional parts of the relationship.

Once a cord-cutting has been performed you can reconnect with those relationships that are important to you, essentially getting a fresh start that is healthier and more positive energetically.

Here are some signs that a cord-cutting might help you out: Feeling “off,” not “yourself,” or unbalanced. Stuck reliving the past instead of living in the present.  Can’t get someone out of your thoughts, with accompanying negative feelings. Feeling drained after talking or being with a person; like they “brought your energy down.” A general lack of energy and vitality that can’t be explained by the usual reasons.

I perform cord-cuttings through a short process taking less than five minutes. I circle around your body clockwise as you stand, vertically moving my consecrated blade and incense with strong confidence and the intent to heal you. This quick ceremony is often done as a service for which payment is rendered ($35.00 is the usual amount, although I’ve seen individuals charging over $80.00). However, in the spirit of “Freely you have received, freely give,” I do not charge for this, although gifts or donations are gratefully accepted. If you are interested, please contact me at maseltaum@gmail.com.

I awoke this morning at 5:30, at least two hours earlier than my usual arising, after dreams of books, of writing, of fame. Yesterday was a heady day of gnosis, of inner spiritual knowing, which grew throughout the day as I concentrated my thought and will, studying my notes from my spiritual manuals.

Although I haven’t mentioned much of my esoteric practice in my blog entries yet, I am an Adept in the Great Univeral Brotherhood and Sisterhood of Light, a society in the spiritual realms that serves as an intermediary between humanity and angelic forces. “Adept” literally means “to master oneself,” and that is indeed what I have been doing in my efforts towards self-improvement and spiritual intensification for a long time now. It’s been only a short time since my formal initiation, but I’ve already established a practice of regular evening and morning rituals, memorized several prayers and invocations, and practiced services such as smudging and cord-cutting, both of which I’ll write more on here in the future. It’s been amazing seeing how my “upper” work is manifesting in the “lower” reality of my everyday life here on Earth. But at the same time I realize I have a tendency to get lost in spirit, and so need to regularly give attention to the body and to the physical world around me, including matters like work. And long term, I want to work as a writer.

Towards that end, I’ve been working much on goals lately, and one of them is to attend University once again. I had this faint idea that once I was in school, things would course naturally along the lines of developing interest and knowledge in a subject, then receiving my degree in it, then going on to graduate school and eventually teaching as a professor, writing books on the side. I don’t know if that’s exactly how things will develop, but I do know that if I have faith, following Divine Guidance along the way, everything will work out better than I can imagine. Yet at the same time I’ve been ambivalent about college for the very reason that I’m entering it with too much blind assurance and not enough of a formally defined vision.

Answering that ambivalence now, I know that college will be an excellent training ground to become an author. It will give me the external discipline to write about anything, skillfully, and with great love. It will not only give me practice, but also service to ground me in the things of this world. I go to school, whenever I do, with the vision of it serving as the landscape to form my character and to empower me as a writer. Eventually my writing will help others and be a light, serving the light of others, within the Light that is All. For now, your reading of my work helps me out as I grow and develop in fits and starts, and I Thank You for this.

0657 h.

Durham, Maine

M.E.B.

     It is supremely satisfying to write in that slow, certain way that is suffused with Soul, when careful attention is placed upon the choice of words and the Imagination is at pleasure and delight with the World. One’s Language determines one’s Experience of the World, and I find that when I slow down to the leisurely pace of beautiful clouds across a landscape, everything is made aright. My readings of Thomas Moore do much to ground me within the real world, in all its sublime Beauty and exquisite Suffering; his writings on the nature of Soul have been a faithful companion of mine for over a decade, and have made me more human. I recommend his work to all of you.

     I hear my fiancée making meat spaghetti in the kitchen, pouring her love into her cooking, as I pour my love into the crafting of these words. I write in silence; there has been much music in my life today, and balance is needed. To balance sound with silence, companionship with solitude, and even happiness with distress, makes for a deep, well-rounded life.

Thomas Moore’s website, www.careofthesoul.net

Chemiconscousness

Journal of Matt

Novum Diarium

Temple Log

     Stay tuned for posts!

Let me describe a distinction between the two, which was clarified for me by the writer Steve Pavlina (whose website, www.StevePavlina.com, is a fantastic resource for personal growth). End goals are goals that you actually want to experience the fulfillment of—no substitute will do. Means goals are goals that you may really want to experience the fulfillment of, but only because they lead you toward what you actually want. For example, you may have a goal of getting a particular job so you can get money so you can buy a car. The car is your end goal. The job and the money are means goals, however—maybe a different job would do just as well, or maybe you’ll find another way to manifest the money in your life. The car is what you really want; The job and the money are just the means to get it.

What does it mean to be a writer, anyway? Does it mean that a large number of people read and enjoy your writing? Does it mean you derive your income and livelihood from writing? Or does being a writer simply mean that you write a lot, that you enjoy it, and that a large part of your life experience is mediated and understood through the power of writing? I’d go with the last definition.

It’s a lot like music. In my previous blog post I mentioned that I have been a musician ever since my father began teaching me guitar, in junior high. I think of myself as a musician, and I partially define myself by that label. I love music, and I’m good at it. But I can count on the fingers of my hands the times I’ve ever played in public for large groups. I’ve never been in a band that’s lasted for a long time, I’ve never cut a record, and I certainly have never made much money from my music. Still, I know I am a musician, in the same way I know I am a writer.

Getting back to end goals and means goals, my end goal is to be a writer. But there are so many avenues and ways of experiencing the achievement of that goal: this blog is only one of them, and hence is a means goal. I actually derive much more pleasure from my personal journaling than writing in this blog—the writing flows much more naturally in my journals, and I actually think I write better in them than in my online posts.

In a way, I’m saying all this because I’m finding it increasingly difficult to maintain this blog in its present form, and I’m wondering if I can pursue my dreams of writing in other ways. I’m not going to abandon Rays of a Sacred Sun, but some things will need to change. I have friends who are publishing zines, printing booklets off of presses, and sharing their writing in other ways. What will the future of Rays of a Sacred Sun be?

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I have been a musician for most of my life, ever since my father began to teach me the art of a guitar as a teenager. Music is indeed a sacred art. Many philosophers from ancient times saw in the mathematical proportions of music–in the different scales and how different vibratory notes combine to form harmonies–a representation of divine order. Order and harmony go hand in hand, in both music and life.

In Western music-theory classes today, the elements of music are often broken down into three categories: melody, rhythm, and harmony. Musically speaking, there can be rhythmic order and melodic order, but harmonic order is an especially useful analogy for how life and music are similar. When everything is flowing in our lives, it feels “harmonious,” we say, and there is a sense of everything “fitting into place.” Once you let everything go and stop trying to force things, harmony and order have a way of asserting themselves.

It is only in recent centuries that composers and musicians have tried consciously to bring what is called “dissonant” structures into their music. Dissonant is the opposite of “consonant,” which is a term for harmonious and pleasing sounds. With the breakdown of community and the loss of mystic-participation-in-life brought about by the Industrial Revolution and the rise of science, dissonant music began to appear, reflecting the mood of the times. It is no coincidence that these times have been full of disillusion and ennui in many world cultures.

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Are you curious about my personal experience with music and my musical past? Would you like me to delve into more philosophical and mystical concepts regarding harmony? Or perhaps examine the historical side of things more? This is an excellent opportunity for us to build Rays of a Sacred Sun together—let me know what you think, because this will help me know what writing styles and topics are more enlightening, entertaining, and helpful to all of you. Namaste!

Our world is moving towards an understanding that there is nothing more sacred than mutually willing sexual love between two human beings of whatever orientation, that it is beautiful and right, that there is nothing sinful about it–and this is very, very good. A fantastic teacher I have recently discovered is Sheri Winston–her model is that of Wholistic Sexuality, and I highly recommend her website, The Center for the Intimate Arts, and all of the products to be found on it–she’s a lot of fun.

Sex is sacred, and so it deserves discussion in any blog about the spirit and about making this world a more harmonious, joyful place. Rays of a Sacred Sun is such a blog about spirituality. As I write it and as I move along in my life, I’m discovering many things about myself. I’m discovering just how deeply my own religious heritage and past practice has scarred me when it comes to the basic, primal, natural aspect of being human that is sex; at the same time I’m observing that I hold a lot of anger towards organized religion, anger that needs to be healed, forgiveness that I need to bring forth from within me.

Blogs are an interesting phenomenon. I can spend an hour or two writing something, and within minutes have it on a platform where billions of people can instantly read it. There are so many blogs out there in the world, however, that it takes a lot for any given one to stand out and attract a consistent readership. I want Rays of a Sacred Sun to be one of those special blogs. It’s been a while since I posted last, and through this process I’ve discovered something else about myself and my writing. The reason I haven’t been posting frequently is due to my perfectionism–I’ve been holding myself to too high a standard, expecting every post to be flawless. But not only does that stifle creativity and output–it also takes all the fun out of it. I’ve decided that the perfection I’ve been looking for comes naturally through practice, and that I’ve got to keep putting myself out there even if I feel less than absolutely satisfied with any particular entry. (Like sex and making love: when it’s good, it’s really, really good, and even when it’s not that good, it’s still good.)

Keep the encouragement and feedback coming–I greatly appreciate it! We can continue to build an online commmunity of the sacred here: feel free in your commments to share some of your feelings about sexuality in today’s world, or if that is too personal, give me ideas that you’d like to see me write future blog entries on. Ideas for posts include witing about Harmony (since I’ve received comments that indicate it as something good to write on) and about the embodiment of the sacred in the physical Earth, the intimate landscapes of Nature around us.

Namaste, and have great sex!

My own mother doesn’t like the word sacred. It reminds her of a strict upbringing in Catholic school, where religion was rammed down her throat. Certainly in contemporary America, religion is often forced upon many of us in an uncomfortable way—who has a deep fondness in their hearts for the fundamentalist preacher telling us that we’re all going to hell? And in the world at large too, we can see the horrible effects of religion run amok—the controversy, wars, and hate spawned by sectarian violence and terrorism. I think of fundamentalism as Religion taken to its logical extreme. While millions still receive solace from contemporary religious formats, the most integrated individuals seem to take a lot of the teachings with a grain of salt and incorporate their own gut feelings into the mix. The only other model seems to be the generalized agnosticism of our time (“I don’t know and I don’t care”), which releases people from the negative atmosphere of formal religion, but unfortunately doesn’t do much else that is positive.

I think it’s obvious that for a long, long time, our culture is transforming into a new relationship with Deity and the Divine, one that is more personal and one that, while new, reflects very old models indeed. In primeval times—before written history–ancient routes to the sacred were more open, more natural. People did not feel a distance between themselves and the sacred, and they did not feel the aching disconnection from life that modern humanity does. Tribes had shamans, medicine men and women, who encountered the gods and the spirits directly, without the intermediation of a priest, and communities were held together in stability.

I know from my own life as a seeker that I have had to find a personal path towards a life of greater healing and integration, amidst a sea of meaninglessness and disenchantment. It took decades for me to wade through books, practices, religious communities, and even plain unbelief before I found what I was looking for. In future posts I would like to share more of my personal journey and my current spiritual practice and processes, but right now I would like to ask you, the reader, a question: what is sacred to you? For some people, this means, “What makes life worth living for?” For others, it may even mean, “What would be worth dying for?” Sometimes the answer is the same. My answer would be love (specifically the love I feel for my new fiancée and all the beauty that our relationship is continually giving birth to!).

I encourage you to leave a comment, as brief or as detailed as you wish, as to what you feel is sacred to you, and perhaps write some of your own history of encounters with the Divine. A large part of this blog is about building a shared community of discussion about the sacred, and hearing from my readers will help determine the nature of future posts. Write back to me; challenge me, ask me questions; we can build Rays of a Sacred Sun together.

The word “Namaste” is an ancient greeting with roots in the land we now call India, and it literally means, “The divine in me recognizes and acknowledges the divine in you.” Embrace your power. Share your love and what you know deep down is true. Namaste.